VERY SLOW 3212/3214 VERY slow! NO SUPPORT!

Parallels 3212 (now 3214) has turned my MacBook Pro into a G3 PowerBook with VirtualPC like speeds.

I 'updated' from 3170 to 3212 and Parallels came to a grinding halt. Performance on the entire system is EXTREMELY slow when Parallels launches and while Parallels is running. The CLOCK actually stops while Parallels launches and I get frequent SPOD/beachballs in other applications and while switching between applications in the Mac OS.

Performance of my MacBook Pro is normal when Parallels is NOT running.

I submitted earlier info in the thread below, but got no response.
"http://forum.parallels.com/post66075-linear.html#post66075"

On 6/15/07, I also submitted a ticket to Parallels. '[Parallels #166388] [Web Support]: Processor use. SLOW performance'

I got the following message back:
'Our support engineer will contact you within 3 business days. We thank you for your patience and look forward to answering your question as soon as possible!'

Well it's been 10 calendar days and no matter how you count that's a lot more than 3 business days!!!!

I need this problem fixed ASAP.

Mac OS 10.4.10
Parallels 3214
MacBook Pro 2.33Ghz Core 2 Duo.

 

What EXACTLY does it take to get support to address a serious issue like this one?????????

 

I have to admit that performance went downhill for me after the jump from 19xx to 3xxx builds. Parallels used to be very spritely for me on my MacBook 2gb but now it's slow and buggy.

I started to use Fusion and, although I purchased Paralles early on, I think I'll be forgetting it in favour of Fusion as it runs a heck of a lot smoother for me. Even off a FW drive.

 

3212 is fine on my Macs, 3214 killed my networking.
I've gone back to 3212 (and a backup of my VM) and it's fine.
Odd - 3214 literally nuked my ability to use networking.
Anyone else?

Scott

 

eighteentee, I'll have to check out Fusion.

slboettcher, 3212 and now 3214 didn't give me any networking drama but have crippled MacBook Pro. Bummer enough as that is. Have to checked your Apple network setting and XP network settings?

 

Everything was the same as in 3212, on both sides.
I used a backup of 3212 and the VM and it's fine.
Something happened in 3214, so I'll have to try it again to see if I can find a cause...

SB

 

I as well have noticed a SERIOUS drop in performance when 'upgrading' to 3214. My machine screams through even heavy-duty non-intel apps like Photoshop CS2, but when Parallels is running, I can click on Firefox and it takes 10 seconds to even load.

What is the deal??! Should I downgrade?

OSX 10.4.10
Macbook Pro 17"
2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo
2 GB ram
Parallels 3214

 

2 weeks and still no actual reply from 'support'. Totally ridiculous!

I will NOT be purchasing 3.0 anytime soon.

 

I haven't had a drop in performance going from 3212 to 3214. When you say Photoshop CS2, do you mean in Windows or OS X? What about Firefox?

David

--
OS X 10.4.10
Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.33 GHz
3 GB RAM
Parallels 2.5 (build 3214)
Windows XP Pro SP 2

 

FWIW, I saw the major performance drop from 3170 to 3212. I think endlessbender's performance hit was from 3188 to 3214.

My MAC applications ARE affected.

 

I went from 1970 to 3186 (I think), 3188, 3212 and 3214 with no problems.

I assume you have tried all the usual OS X fixes (reboot OS X, Repair Permissions, Repair Disk, empty caches, run DiskWarrior, etc.)?

Are you running Boot Camp or do you keep your files on an external drive? (I don't do either.)

David

--
OS X 10.4.10
Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.33 GHz
3 GB RAM
Parallels 2.5 (build 3214)
Windows XP Pro SP 2

 

I wonder if it's 10.4.10 related?

 

Have you tried reinstalling 10.4.10 using the Combo Updater (not Software Update)?

David

 

I also have a significant decrease in speed in both the VM and OSX 10.4.1. VERY ANNOYING. In fact, at least twice Parallels has needed to quit while trying to access a website with only Explorer and Outlook open in the VM and Mail and iCal open in OSX. I have tried permission fixes and optimization to no avail. I came to this forum in hopes that someone else had a suggestion because the last time I asked for Parallel support it took forever in coming and then I ended up having an IT guy at work look at it.

Any suggestions?

MacBook
Parallels 3214
OSX 10.4.10

 

I haven't tried re-installing the 10.4.10 update because there isn't a problem with any applications when Parallels is closed.

The problem only occurs when Parallels is running. The Windows startup chime actually stutters because it is so slow and taxing on the system.

For the record.... I submitted this to Parallels "Support" on 6/15/07. Today is 7/9/07. It's been more than 3 weeks. Their claim of 3 days for a support engineer to contact me is a joke.

 

Just out of curiosity, what are the details of your RAM allocation?

David

 

I am not a support engineer but I once had similar problems. After a whole lot of fruitless tweaking around the edges, I junked my installation and started from scratch.

I currently use build 3214 on an iMac with 2 GB RAM.

My solution? I now use a fixed format VM, not an expanding format VM. In my case, the CPU and hard disk required a lot of resources resizing my VM, which caused symptoms similar to yours. No such problem with my fixed format VM. So, my VM runs almost as fast as my host OS X 10.4.10.

(Also - and I don't know what antivirus package you are using, if any - but switching from McAfee Internet Security to Kaspersky also helped.)

Of course, you need a lot of HD real estate to take advantage of the fixed format VM. My HD is 500GB of which 80 GB is allocated to my WINXP.HDD. But nevertheless, it works for me. Maybe - just maybe - some kind of fix can be implemented for expanding format VMs.

 

Not sure if this is the problem, though--I have an expanding VM but don't experience any slowdown. Perhaps there was something particular about your setup?

David

 

Help - So Slow It Barely Moves

I recently upgraded to Parallels Version 3.0 - I do NOT use anything complicated - I do not use bootcamp, etc. I have a macbook pro with 1GB - is this enough memory? I have reinstalled parallels and operating system - I really like the program - is there anything I can do in set up or allocations or anywhere to get this to work for me - I use it very modestly but can barely switch between OSs - please help and please write your response as if I am not a super parallel user - I get it but not perfectly.

thx

 

sorry to say, that 1GB is really not ideal - you would see much better performance with 2GB. Both systems just need piles of RAM to coexist well.